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Introduction

Article By Dr. Mercola – Each and every day, you come into contact with a large number of items—many of which have health risks that can accumulate over time. Many chemicals appear safe yet aren’t, and are not likely to be suspected when your health starts failing.

But other items that are part of the “standard” of contemporary living—such as electronics and even your office chair—can also do more harm than good in the long run.

The list of offending items can certainly be made exceedingly long, but here I will list 10 everyday items that you’d be better off without. A recent article in Time Magazine ^[1] lists even more items you should throw away for better health.

#1: Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose (Splenda) trick your body into storing fat and raise your risk of diabetes, so if you’re looking for health benefits, you’d be better off throwing those colorful little packets in the trash. Additionally, you can take the Artificial Sweetener Challenge from Naturally Savvy to help identify and remove artificial sweeteners from your diet.

The same goes for any food or beverage containing artificial sweeteners, such as diet soda. Besides worsening insulin sensitivity and promoting weight gain, artificial sweeteners also promote other more serious health problems, including heart attacks, stroke ^[2][3][4] and Alzheimer’s disease.

One of the mechanisms by which artificial sweeteners promote obesity and disease is by disrupting your intestinal microflora. ^[5][6][7][8] Specifically, artificial sweeteners alter metabolic pathways associated with metabolic function.

Decreased function has been observed in pathways associated with the transport of sugar in your body, for example. Artificial sweeteners have also been found to induce gut dysbiosis and glucose intolerance in otherwise healthy people.